Ekaterina Karinskaya: “I was born in it”

The conflict around the House of Melnikov, which had been smoldering for a long time, has moved into a hot stage in recent months. Inna Denisova spoke with both granddaughters of Konstantin Melnikov, who are on opposite sides of the barricades. Ekaterina Viktorovna Karinskaya tells her version of events.

— What happened on August 13 ?

— I was out of town, my husband was at home. A local police officer came to him, not ours, an stranger. And he asked me to explain in writing why he was in the house. I took my husband to the department next door. A 73-year-old man who had recently suffered a heart attack was put in a stuffy room and held just long enough to break down the door to the house. The husband felt bad and returned to take some medicine, but he was no longer allowed into the house. I saw people walking around the house and called me. I asked him to call an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, Zhiltsov’s lawyer, representing the interests of the Museum of Architecture, approached the husband and asked him to tell him where the money was. He said, “We’ll find it ourselves, but we won’t give it back.” The money was eventually confiscated and has not been returned to this day. The Museum of Architecture, which declared this war on me, broadcasts everywhere that it operates within the framework of the law. A simple question arises: if they have all the title documents, why did they break down the doors in the monument?

— What did you see when you arrived?

— We came from the dacha with our daughter and two small grandchildren. The doors were wide open. The guards sat on the steps and did not let me inside. I called my eldest son. He was already here, climbed over the fence, opened the gate. We entered. Later, the daughter, with a two-year-old child in her arms, and her son went to talk with the guards and entered the house: from conversations on the radio, she heard that they were preparing to seize the house by force. Then she placed her sons, two years old and five years old, on the step in front of the door.

— Did you call the police?

- Of course. But the police arrived only at 12 at night. She came in with the words: “You live here illegally; in 1996, your registration was declared invalid.” This is incorrect: the 1996 decision was not enforced as a result by agreement with the plaintiff, that is, with my father’s sister. We then came to an agreement and decided that I would live with my dad, because, firstly, he was not feeling well, and secondly, while I was in the house, I would monitor the restoration. In any case, this decision today is legally unenforceable: firstly, the statute of limitations has passed, and secondly, only the plaintiff can resume enforcement proceedings, and my father’s sister died in 2003. In general, my registration is valid.

And then it came to the raider takeover.

— What is happening in the Melnikov House today?

“I now have two guards living around the clock. They spend the night, sleeping on a cot, jack. First, they settled down in the dining room, went to the kitchen, used the toilet, and took a shower. Then I moved them out: now they live in the hallway. They guard the entrance to the second and third floors, where they won’t let me in. To which they have no right, since I am the executor of the will, they should not touch the inheritance in my absence. The situation is heating up. I go out, they are letting me back in for now, but they may not let me in at any moment. They are supposedly making an inventory of what is not included in the memorial property, so they are rummaging through my personal belongings. But the main thing is that they broke the original door frame, knocking out the lock. The door has been in excellent condition since 1929.

— Why does the Museum of Architecture need all this? What is the fight for?

- I can guess who needs this. The seizure of the house was organized by a certain Karpenko, Gordeev’s lawyer (businessman Sergei Gordeev was the head of the RosBuild trading company). Dad (artist Viktor Melnikov - Ed .) owned half of the house and all movable property. The other half belonged to his sister Lyudmila. When she died, her son sold this half to Gordeev. And he, in all likelihood, wanted to get the whole house. For two years, due to tragic circumstances - my son was seriously ill - I did not do business: during this time, my sister signed an agreement with her blind father to donate his half of the house to Gordeev. The contract was declared invalid during my father’s lifetime. In 1996, a court decision established that the house could have only one user - Viktor Konstantinovich Melnikov, with whom a security obligation was concluded as the sole owner-user. The second owner was his sister - without the right to use it. That is, she could sell or donate her part to the state, but she could not use the house. Since I lived with him, I inherited my father’s right of use.

In December 2013, the court announced a decision on the distribution of shares: 1/2 to the state and 1/4 each to my sister and me. Since Viktor Konstantinovich Melnikov owns 1/2 of the house, then we own 1/8. When the decision was finally made in December and the house became part of the estate, they - my sister, with the support of the Museum of Architecture - filed an appeal to remove 1/2 of the house from the estate. And then it came to the raider takeover.

The restoration, by the way, is still not completed.

— Is it no longer possible to resolve the issue amicably within the family circle?

- But as? My sister and I have nothing to talk about anymore.

— Did you have a good relationship as a child?

“I loved her very much, I pulled her out of all the stories.” But after those things that she did... After she and dad’s nephew threw out the cross from grandfather’s grave, which dad made with his own hands... When grandpa died, dad himself made a mold, cut out letters on this cross in grandfather’s font. It’s good that I still have the measurements - the cross on my grandfather’s grave was restored.

— Elena Viktorovna claims that you changed the furnishings of the house.

— During his lifetime, my dad and I hung everything up in agreement with him. His workshop was inviolable after his death, there are witnesses to this. On the second floor, where everything has now been partially removed, I also didn’t touch anything: during the restoration everything was fixed and then hung in the same places. The memorial setting has been completely preserved. It is impossible to say that Elena can be responsible for conservation. When we were preparing the house for restoration, the only thing Elena participated in was collecting grandmother’s napkins. My grandmother never worked, she knitted lace all her life: my sister’s participation in preserving the memorial environment was that she sketched which napkin was in which place.

Recently, information was published on the Internet at the instigation of the Museum of Architecture that there was dirt and dust in the house. In fact, twice a year we do a general cleaning of the entire house, not counting routine cleanings.

— How many years have you lived in the house?

- I was born in it. Then there was a war. Evacuation. The house was uninhabited. In 1948 it was restored, at that moment I was registered in it, and from that moment until my marriage I lived in it. Then I got married, lived separately with my family, maintaining relationships with home. Mom and Dad divorced when we were raised. It was not easy for my mother to live with a creative person: he needed a wife who would live for him, and my mother considered herself an individual. They divorced in 1961. Dad stayed to live here with my grandparents. First my grandfather died, then my grandmother. Dad lived alone for some time. In 1989, preparations began for scientific restoration: they removed the security alarm, opened the roof, not knowing what to do with it, and abandoned it for several years. The scaffolding was installed in 1989 and removed in 2007. That’s when I moved here - it was impossible to leave the house without an alarm with the creative heritage inside. We slept like this: on the third floor, dad with a hatchet left over from his trips to Kamchatka. I’m on the second floor, my German Shepherd is on the first floor, and after the dog’s death, one of the restorers. The restoration, by the way, is still not completed.

I maintained the house, paid the bills, fought against construction projects around me, cleared snow from the roof, cleaned the sidewalks. She took care of the house entirely alone.

-Who was in charge of it?

- Moscow Heritage Committee. Then it was called the “Department of State Control of the Protection and Use of Monuments.” A commission was formed under the Ministry of Culture: Kudryavtsev, Markina, Aleksandrovskaya. Designer Becker, hydrogeologist Pashkin. The commission was competent, but the execution was disgraceful. Oil paint was covered with enamel - under the enamel the wood deteriorates. The window joinery was destroyed.

Then they started building pits in the neighborhood. The house has cracks because the ground is sinking.

— Is this because of the construction of a new house on Arbat?

- Yes, because of him. It’s not for nothing that there have never been tall buildings in our 176th block, but only light ones, without basements. There is Geotrust data that the territory is potentially dangerous in terms of karst and suffosion. The house stands on loose sand, which is washed away more and more every day. Therefore, it is simply premature to talk about restoration, which the Museum of Architecture is now shouting about. Until work is carried out to strengthen the soil, restoration is useless.

The work is very complex: as an engineer, I don’t understand how to get out of the situation - all the groundwater has been drained under our house and the neighboring one, and there is nowhere else for it to go. The dam was installed when they began to build a new house on the site of Melgunov’s demolished house. For some reason, the Museum of Architecture was not interested in the demolition of Melgunov’s house at all. After the pit was dug in 2012, sedimentary cracks appeared along the entire perimeter of the first floor of the Melnikov House. “We will repair the cracks!” - shouts the Museum of Architecture. What's the point of sealing them before strengthening the soil? New ones will appear.

— Until August of this year, only you were watching the Melnikov House?

- Yes. I maintained the house, paid the bills, fought against construction projects around me, cleared snow from the roof, cleaned the sidewalks. She took care of the house entirely alone. My husband helped me until he had a heart attack. In 2008, on my initiative, an inventory of the memorial furnishings of the house was compiled - with photographs and a description of the preservation with reference to the place.

You can make a diamond out of your heritage, or you can make it into consumer goods.

— What are your actions in the near future?

— To achieve the initiation of a criminal case against the Museum of Architecture. The Arbat Department of Internal Affairs has so far refused me: they do not see any crime in the fact that they broke the door to the monument, invaded the home and committed arbitrariness by taking money.

My main goal is for the terms of my father's will to be fulfilled. They say: “You give it to the state, and the state will figure out what to do with it.” Sorry, but I will give the house to the state only if the terms of my father’s will are fully met. They should give me an apartment within walking distance from the house. And the position of the head of the established museum of Konstantin and Viktor Melnikov. So that I myself choose a successor, the sooner the better, who will continue to maintain the museum the way my dad and I would like to see it. Only on these conditions.

— The resolution on the establishment of the Melnikov Museum as a branch of the Museum of Architecture appeared recently. Who accepted it?

— It was not even signed by V.R. Medinsky, and E.B. Milovzorova. “Amendments should be made to the charter of the Museum of Architecture. To establish a museum of Konstantin and Viktor Melnikov as a branch of the State Museum of Architecture.” But a state museum cannot be a branch! My father wanted a separate museum. I am the executor of the will. I will insist that a place be found for the museum close to home. I believe that the museum of Konstantin and Viktor Melnikov can be allocated a decent premises.

- Now you are staying in the besieged house because you are afraid for its fate?

“I’m afraid that everything will be stolen there.” Something is constantly falling there. I'm afraid for my father's painting: they put frames on the painting. You need to know the house. It was built not according to the rules, but contrary to them. New arrivals begin to attach their own rules to it.

The main thing, in my opinion, is not only to perfectly preserve the situation at the time of dad’s departure, it’s not difficult. The main thing is to preserve the spirit of the house. Heritage can be made into a diamond, or it can be consumer goods: my goal is to save it from becoming the latter. Now the Museum of Architecture is bringing Melnikov to a common denominator. Only one house from Melnikov in Moscow remains authentic. The rest are boxes damaged by double-glazed windows. I shouldn't allow this to happen. Likhacheva (who is in charge of current activities) was giving a tour of the house, saying: “Melnikov is one of...” I couldn’t stand it and interrupted: “Melnikov is not one of them. Melnikov is alone.”

— Have you conducted excursions before?

- Me and dad. He drove everyone. When I became blind, I asked him: “Dad, don’t let him in from the street, you can’t see.” My father lived by ideals. Grandfather had to fight a lot for himself in life, and dad was the complete opposite of him. He didn’t refuse anyone. Access was limited; we did not allow more than five people in. I believe that people should come into the house prepared. Walk in and feel the space. When I gave tours, I was thanked for the way I preserved the house. I need to pass this on to someone who feels the same.

— Do I understand correctly that your grandfather built a house for his family - so that everyone could live in it?

- Right. But when my grandfather built the house, he was at such a high point that he didn’t think about where anyone would live when the family grew. I thought that I would still have time to build houses for everyone. From 1925 to 1930 he had a period when he thought that he could do anything and everything would work out. Not so. This house turned out to be the last one.